Drowning Pool – Resilience

It’s almost impossible to look at Drowning Pool as the same band they were in 2002. A lot has changed since then and five albums and four vocalists later Resilience is Drowning Pools latest studio album with new vocalist Jasen Moreno, and you can’t deny that Resilience is a great release, however keep in mind that it’s been 14 years since the good old days.

The first time I listened to Resilience I couldn’t help but think two things. One, that this album sounds very similar to Soil. Ironic now that Ryan McCombs is no longer the vocalist. And two, that this album sounds as if it was created for a main-stream audience, as it now lacks that heavy, ‘grungy’ sound they once had.

However even with those notions, Anytime Anyplace is a monster of an opening track. The band show us that Drowning Pool are still capable of delivering us powerful anthemic tunes. Jasens ferocious vocals and the cleverly vicious rhythmic guitar riffs creates a song that prepares you for the rest of the album.

This album has very few good tracks, but “Life Of Misery” carries an upbeat and energetic melody that you find yourself nodding your head without even wanting to, nevertheless we all know one song that has terrible, lyrics (piled on with extra cheese) and yet are still infectiously catchy. Well, this is another one of those songs. The lyrics are awful but the vocals are still impressive throughout, holding a similar style to Drowning Pools previous releases whilst adding to the upbeat-rock infused musicianship.

“Bleed with You” and “In Memory Of” are also a couple of the more prominent tracks from the record, both offering something different. With “Bleed With You” you get a heavier sound which still includes a catchy tune but keeps up with the rest of the album yet briefly reminding you of Drowning Pools previous sound. And a few nice guitar effects add a pleasant change half way through the song. In contrast “In Memory Of” commemorates the 10-year anniversary of the passing of the band’s original singer, Dave Williams. It offers the fans a more heart-felt song that takes a step back from the rest of the albums up-beat sound. The lyrics aren’t unbearable and this is by far one of the best tracks on the album with it’s heavier, distorted guitar tones and Jasens impressive vocals, which are evidently more suited to this style… Although that opening melody does sound an awful lot like Metallica’s ‘One’.

By the time you’re half way through the album songs start to blur together and ‘Skip to the End’ is a brilliantly titled track as by this point I’m actually contemplating skipping to the end of the album. As for the song, it includes the same (I can only describe this as…) cheesy, ‘bad boy’ riffs and lyrics that you’ve heard continuously for the past half an hour.

The musicianship all-round provides us songs that are rooted in the 90’s and true to their roots but are undoubtedly products of the present. Jasen Moreno is able to showcase his talents by delivering powerful vocals that provide a refreshing change to the bands sound and keeps a consistently upbeat and thrilling vibe. Realistically no-one should go into this album expecting anything ground-breaking or as good as their début, and if you’re looking for the guys who produced the song ‘Bodies’ then I’d suggest giving this album a miss. It’s changed a little since then. However, on a whole Resilience is still incredible in it’s own way and I’m sure there will be more to come from this band in the future.

6/10

Track listing:

1. Anytime Anyplace

2. Die For Nothing

3. One Finger and A Fist

4. Digging These Holes

5. Saturday Night

6. Low Crawl

7. Life of Misery

8. Broken Again

9. Understand

10. Bleed With You

11. Skip to the End

12. In Memory Of.

13. Blindfold

14. Apathetic (Bonus Track)

15. One Way Prophecy